PRODUCTION:
From a distance...

"From a distance, all we can assume is Sally misjudged when she reached 100 per cent of her ability". Steve Lawrence, WAIS

"From a distance, to give up is almost very unaustralian" Cathy Freeman

In the 2004 Athens Olympic women's eight rowing final, Sally Robbins stopped rowing. The media frenzy, and the discussion of national identity that followed are the starting points for this new performance by acclaimed Sydney performance group version 1.0. This performance is not about Sally or her team-mates, but about the reaction to their story in the Australian media. Of particular interest to the performance is the notion of 'un Australian', a term repeatedly used to describe those involved in the 'no row' incident. What is it to be 'un Australian'? Using media transcripts and commentary on the 'no row incident', version 1.0 investigate Australian identity as defined through sport, probing the dark side of sport and nationalism with disturbing and frequently hilarious results.

VENUE:
16-26 March 2006, North Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne as part of the 2006 Next Wave Festival 'Empire Games'
5-16 April 2006, Performance Space, Sydney

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID ABOUT FROM A DISTANCE... :

"From A Distance ... has wit, energy and a good helping of social conscience... this is political theatre with bite."
The Sun Herald, 9/4/06

"Theatre like this needs to be made. We need to interrogate the facts behind the facts, the background stories and contexts that contribute to significant events. We need theatre that is provocative, entertaining and contradictory, and Version 1.0 is certainly tackling the hard issues. Let's define Australianness as questioning our judgements, our politicians, our media. Not, as some might have it, defining Australianness by listing our so-called shared values. Politics- what an Aussie BBQ stopper!"
The Sydney Stage, 6/4/06

"provocative and timely"
The Australian, 20/3/2006

"startling and engaging...Theatre that's political and funny, excellent!"
Vibewire, 30/3/06

"Bursting at the seams with challenging ideas...provokes the uncomfortable frission of genuinely political theatre... It picks at a scab on our national psyche and never fails to be provocative and thought-provoking."
The Age, 23/3/2006

"a brilliant explosion of what it means to be Australian, and indeed Un-Australian... I can only really compare them to the UK's Forced Entertainment in style with the exception that Version 1.0 focus their attention on a central issue which makes them a damn site better in my opinion. ... these guys are doing a kind of work that no other company in Australia is doing and it's a shame they're way the hell up in Sydney. Move the hell down to Melbourne guys."
Beat 23/3/2006

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Devisors and performers:
Nikki Heywood, Stephen Klinder, Jane McKernan, Jane Phegan, Elizabeth Ryan, Christopher Ryan, and Emma Saunders.

Director & Producer:
David Williams

Dramaturgy:
Dr Paul Dwyer

Consultant Director:
Yana Taylor

Video & Lighting Design:
Simon Wise

Sound Design:
Jason Sweeney

PRODUCTION:
The Bougainville Photoplay Project

A slide show with fireside chat

DESCRIPTION

The “ethnographic turn” in performance studies has been in full swing for over two decades. Its effects are readily apparent not only in the sheer range of genres of social and cultural behaviour that are being studied but also in the research methodologies being adopted. Less clear, however, are the implications of what some sociologists, anthropologists and communication theorists are calling the “performative turn” in ethnography.
In a presentation which combines performative renditions of field notes, oral history, slides, Super-8 film and the display of various artefacts, The Bougainville Photoplay Project grapples with the ethical, epistemological and practical dilemmas of making art and conducting research in post-colonial, post-conflict settings, particularly when the performance-maker/researcher is a citizen of the former colonial power.

The project weaves together three strands of narrative, the first of which documents a series of trips to Bougainville (Papua New Guinea) by an eminent Australian orthopedic surgeon during the 1960s, just as the era of Australia ’s colonial mandate in PNG is drawing to a close. The doctor is presented with dozens of crippled children and lepers; his operations allow many of these people to walk for the first time. The second narrative strand documents the establishment of the giant Panguna copper mine against the wishes of Bougainville’s traditional landowners, the environmental destruction caused by the mine, the struggle for Bougainville to become independent of PNG and the spiralling chaos of a brutal civil war during which roughly one in ten of the island’s inhabitants dies. The third strand of the photoplay project documents the beginnings of fieldwork study by an Australian academic, Paul Dwyer, of reconciliation ceremonies on Bougainville in the current period of post-war reconstruction.

The Bougainville Photoplay Project is politics and performance at its most personal. An intimate, moving, and constantly surprising monologue performance.

VENUE:
February 2006, Mori Gallery, Sydney
15-18 June 2006, Queen Mary University of London, London as part of Performance Studies International #12: Performing Rights

PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Devised and performed
Paul Dwyer

Direction
David Williams

Video and production
Russell Emerson

PRODUCTION:
The Wages of Spin

A national tour as part of Mobile States

DESCRIPTION

With clever subversive wit, The Wages of Spin provokes a closer examination of the issues at the core of the controversy surrounding the "intelligence" reports that were the deciding factor in Australia's involvement in the war in Iraq. This is political theatre version 1.0 style - playful, surreal, visceral and tragic, with no easy answers. While the production's subject is serious, the treatment is often hilarious. version 1.0 have again produced a show that successfully subverts, whilst never ceasing to entertain.

Audiences can expect to be shocked and horrified at the reality of war and the manipulation of truth, and in the very next moment, laughing at the irony of the media's obsession with pop star Delta Goodrem's 'suffering' and 'trauma' caused by her relationship 'crisis'. The production's meticulously researched script re-examines Senate Committee proceedings, often cheekily using the Hansard transcript verbatim as a theatrical device that leaves audiences asking: What should we believe? Further provoking the audience to question the authenticity of information, and the 'word' of those in power, is the productions clever re-contextualization of official public documents, television interviews and even raves from columnists and webloggers. The Wages of Spin is designed to engage the audience critically with the issues and ask: "Does it matter that we went to war on a lie?"

VENUE:
9-20 August, 2006, Performance Space, Sydney
23-26 August, 2006, Visy Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane
30 August - 9 September, 2006, North Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne
12-16 September, 2006 Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
20-30 September, 2006, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID ABOUT THE WAGES OF SPIN:

"If you value freedom and democracy, do not miss The Wages of Spin."
Peter Wilkins, The Canberra Times, 22/7/05

“As a reminder of how we’ve arrived at this most culpable of moments in our national history, where there are no excuses, and as a model of multimedia performance, The Wages of Spin is mandatory viewing”
Keith Gallasch, RealTime 68, August/September 2005

“Make no mistake about this production. It is a most divisive and revealing event … Version 1.0 make challenging theatre with an integrity that cuts across traditional left and right wing boundaries”
Joe Woodward, The Canberra Review, 28/7/05

"This is a great show: witty, clever, lively and provocative. ... Version 1.0 – whose CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident) last year was one of the most interesting and provocative responses to the Tampa and the sinking of SIEV X events - is doing a new type of political theatre that is based in serious research but is also mocking, subversive and fun."
John McCallum, The Australian, 23/5/05

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Performer/devisors:
Stephen Klinder, Kym Vercoe & David Williams

Performing Media Crew:
   Katy Green, Dan Pardy, &
Ingrid Sivertsen

Dramaturgy:
Paul Dwyer

Outside Eye:
Yana Taylor

Video Artist:
Sean Bacon

Sound Artist:
Gail Priest

Lighting:
Simon Wise

Devised by:
 Stephen Klinder, Deborah Pollard & David Williams